New York Mets discussion, news and historical perspective -- now getting by with a little help from my friends.

Hasta La Vista, Kaz

Friday, June 9, 2006
By Mike Steffanos

I just returned home to discover that Newsday's John Heyman is reporting that Kaz Matsui was traded to the Rockies for career bench player Eli Marrero. This doesn't surprise me -- once Jose Valentin won the second base job it was obvious that Matsui's days were numbered. He wasn't going to help them off the bench.

Apparently the Mets are virtually paying all of Matsui's salary for the remainder of the season. The Rockies are sending Matsui down to Triple-A. It will be interesting to see what the Mets do with Marrero when Nady returns, given the fact that it seems increasingly unlikely that Milledge will be sent back down. If not, that opens up an interesting discussion about who's the odd man out in the outfield. You'll have Floyd, Beltran, Milledge, Nady and, to a lesser extent, Endy Chavez looking for ABs in a crowded outfield. I believe Nady is eligible to return some time during the Phillies series. I guess there will be plenty of time to figure this all out as it develops.

Matsui never was the player that was sold to Mets fans when they signed him, but he wasn't nearly bad enough to warrant the absolute contempt directed at him from a segment of the fan base. He always played hard, and didn't complain when he was benched. Having said that, he was given huge money in what has to go down as one of the worst personnel decisions in the history of this franchise. It's a good thing that both Matsui and the Mets finally have the opportunity to turn the page on his most unfortunate tenure in New York.

Mets Walkoffs: Happy Anniversary
Congratulations to Mark and the wonderful Mets Walkoffs web site for reaching the one-year anniversary of entertaining Mets fans. To take a very restrictive idea for a web site and being able to keep it so fresh and entertaining requires a level of talent and creativity that most of the rest of us could only dream about. Terrific job, Mark.